There are numerous accounts of individuals becoming disoriented in a darkened room and being unable, or finding it fairly difficult, to exit the room or enter another. For example, a common occurrence experienced by many people involves rising at night to use the bathroom, attempting to locate the door to the room without turning on the room or hallway light and possibly waking a sleeping partner. In other examples, electrical power service may be lost and one or more rooms may thus be darkened. In many commercial settings, emergency lighting may be provided. However, in most residential homes, emergency lighting for such circumstances is typically not provided. Moreover, even if non-emergency light is available, power to the lights in such circumstances may not be available, as noted above.
A less drastic scenario of fear or disorientation may be in a child's room, which may be relatively dark at night. Many children, especially fairly young children, are frightened in a relatively dark room, or may become disoriented if they need to exit the room for various reasons, both emergency and non-emergency, during the night. In many instances, to alleviate this concern, a night-light may be placed in the child's room that partially illuminates the room and/or other parts of the darkened home. Similar concerns may also exist for the elderly.
While fairly effective for the desired purpose, night-lights do suffer certain drawbacks. For example, most night-lights rely on electrical power to operate, and thus increase household electrical expense. In addition, night-lights, even at low levels of illumination, are sometimes distracting to people who desire near total darkness for sleep. Moreover, in certain emergency situations, electrical power may not be available to energize the night-light.
Hence, there is a need for a device that will passively illuminate at least a small area or household component in a darkened room. That is, a device that will illuminate without the need to rely on a source of electrical power. The present invention addresses at least this need.